Burned (3 page)

“That’s an excellent point.” I stopped and turned around. Maybe walking a couple miles with one shoe wasn’t the best idea. If I could skip right to Todd, I owed it to my sister and her son to do so. “Where is Todd?”

“Why do you keep calling him Todd?” Ricky interrupted, fixing me with a look I couldn’t quite read. It seemed both annoyed and concerned for my sanity.

“When I was storming the amusement park looking for you, I met a security guy named Todd.” I gestured at the ruined helicopter. “He was the guy on the radio. He’s the demon who kidnapped my family.” I swung my gaze back to Danton. “Do you know where he is?”

“He’s in Hell, mate. He left when the Heavenly Host blew up the helicopter. No demon wants to be on the wrong end of a good, old-fashioned smiting. If you go back to where you left him, the only thing you’ll find is death and memories.” Danton shrugged. “Any clue you find wouldn’t be any good to you anyway. Me, maybe, but you, not so much.” He had a point. I probably wouldn’t know if I’d found something or not. Hell, a clue could literally bite me on the ass, and I wouldn’t know. Damn.

“So you don’t know where he is then?” I raised an eyebrow. Maybe he was right. Maybe it wouldn’t do any good to go back there, but I had to try. You always have to try. I’d feel stupid if we ignored it to bumble around for days while the missing piece was sitting there the whole time. Besides, it wasn’t like the demon hunter extraordinaire had a better plan. So far all he’d come at me with was let’s go have tea and chat. Pass.

“Well, in a word. No.” Danton smiled apologetically. “But if you come with me, I’m sure we can find him.”

“We’ll try your plan after we try mine. Scout’s honor,” I replied, already walking back toward the park. Guess I’d be doing it with one shoe. That was sort of annoying. Then again, maybe there’d be a twenty-four hour shoe store on the way. Stranger things had happened. “You said you might be able to find something. Prove your worth.”

“You have one shoe.” Danton huffed loudly when I didn’t stop. “Are you really going to make her walk miles dressed like she’s about to flash the first person who walks by? No offense.”

Ricky didn’t respond, but that may have been because I whirled around in a rage. My scarlet tattoos flared in the night sky as I fixed my gaze upon him. Even that tiny effort made me see double, but that was okay. I had enough Hellfire for both of him.

Danton held up his hands apologetically. “I said no offense.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to be offensive. Apologize,” I snarled and fire danced along my fingertips.

“Mac, it’s okay.” Ricky cried, pushing between us. The feel of her hand on my chest was so warm and comforting, I almost couldn’t think past it. I had the sudden urge to grab hold of her and never let go. Ricky must have felt something too because her pulse sped up and her cheeks flushed. She swallowed hard and pulled her hand away from me like it was the hardest thing she’d ever done. I looked down, staring at my empty fingers. It felt like she’d taken a piece of me with her when she’d let go.

“Wow, you two have it bad,” Danton said, shaking his head. He moved past her and stepped between us even though there were flames dancing along my skin. “You two need to stay at least three feet apart at all times. Don’t make me get the ruler out.”

“Dude,” I said, and I couldn’t keep the annoyance out of my voice. It wasn’t like we were a couple of teenagers, after all. We were both grownups. “Seriously? What is your deal?”

“My deal is we’re about to go face Baal, and you are acting like some kind of oversexed buck fighting over a doe. That’s not going to work if you want to actually succeed in rescuing your family. If you keep acting like this, we’re all going to die. Trust me when I say this. I am not interested in dying.” He shoved me but not very hard. Even still, I tottered backward and would have fallen if he hadn’t grabbed me by the collar of my blood-soaked Rage Against the Machine T-shirt. “Now, how about we pretend one of us knows what he’s doing, and you come with me?”

“Wait, did you say Baal? As in the god from the Old Testament?” Ricky asked, a slight tremor in her voice. Her face had gone as pale as snow, making her freckles stand out like spots of red ink on her skin. Her reaction made me take a mental step back. I couldn’t ever recall seeing her this scared. I didn’t know who Baal was, but if he provoked that kind of reaction, he was definitely bad news.

“The very same.” Danton nodded. “Which is why I wasn’t going to say anything, but jackass over here doesn’t want to listen.” Danton shook me even though it seemed unnecessary.

“I don’t know who Baal is.” I shrugged out of his grip and stood there swaying. “Unless you mean the guy from Stargate, and I’m guessing that isn’t the case since I think they killed him and all his clones.”

“You’re aware all the goa'uld in Stargate are named after gods here, right?” Danton asked, giving me a look filled with disgust. “Those gods are real and most of them are dicks.”

“So is he a god or a demon?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“He’s a demon pretending to be a god. That’s why we call him a false god.” Danton sighed like he didn’t want to go into it. “We don’t have time for this now. We need to get out of the open before someone else tries to kill us. Trust me. Someone else will try to kill us. Probably multiple someones.”

“Danton, do you think you can find something he may have left behind in the control room?” I asked, sort of agreeing with him. We needed to get out of here before guys drove up in vans and shot us full of holes. If I wanted me dead, I’d already have assassins on the way. The longer we stayed here and argued, the more likely someone wanting to kill us would come along to do just that.

“I can probably find something,” Danton said after a long moment. “At least, I can’t rule out the possibility.”

“Then we’re going. End of story.” I began walking again, and while Ricky followed along with me, she seemed a lot more hesitant than before. I wasn’t sure who Baal was, but I was willing to bet he was really bad. Hell, just the time I’d spent with him when he was disguised as that clown had been chilling.

Well, that was okay. I had a way to deal with things that scared me. I shot them. A lot.

Chapter 4

Yeah, so like the total badass I was, I made it about twenty feet before collapsing to my knees in the middle of the sidewalk. I did it as gracefully as I could with my chest heaving for breath. Still, my hammering heart and throbbing temples let me know one thing. There was no way I was going to walk all the way to the corner a few meters away, let alone the theme park. As I lay there on my hands and knees, the blood pounding in my ears, I tried to force myself to my feet. It didn’t work, and even that tiny effort made stars shoot from behind my eyes.

“Mac,” Ricky said, kneeling down next to me and putting a comforting hand on the back of my neck. Her fingers were the temperature of a blizzard and made me shiver uncontrollably, which was understandable, given the circumstances, but still a little weird. Usually she felt warm, like being next to a blast furnace, so why was she so cold? I opened my mouth to ask her just that but found it was too hard to make the words come out of my mouth. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Ricky’s face settled into a hard line of concern as she watched my mouth open and close. Her next words were quiet, obviously designed so only I’d hear them. “You need to rest, eat something, and chill for a bit. I doubt you can make it all the way there on foot.” She gestured at me as if to say, “See exhibit A.”

“What would you have me do?” I croaked, my voice strangled and stuttering as I spoke. Each word felt like a bag of glass being pushed out of my esophagus.

Her eyes narrowed, and as she opened her mouth to say something else, I shut my eyes to keep the world from spinning. It didn’t work. Everything kept whirling by, only now it was shrouded in a darkness that made my stomach lurch violently. As I gripped the cement with my fingers in an effort to keep myself from falling into a vortex of darkness, nausea surged up from my stomach and raged up my throat.

In a truly awesome display of manliness, I retched onto the ground in front of me, and the smell, like sour grapes and curdled milk, made me want to throw up more. I complied, dry heaving so violently, the muscles in my abdomen hurt. Ricky kept her icy hand on my neck the whole time, comforting me, even though she should have run a million miles away. It almost made me smile because if I had long flowing hair, I could almost envision her holding it up out of the way.

“You’re overstimulated, Mac,” Danton said, and it sounded like he was pretty close to me. Somehow, unlike Ricky, I didn’t think he would hold my hair back if I retched. The jerk. “You need to rest and eat something. The longer you resist, the worse you’re going to get. My car is just over there. I’ll drive you back to the theme park, okay?”

“You’re being awfully nice,” I said through clenched teeth. My weakened state was pissing me off. I needed to get to my family, not take a goddamned lunch break.

I pushed myself back onto my haunches and opened my eyes. He was standing a few feet away with a sad expression on his face. Without a word, he pointed to my arm. I followed his gaze to see my flesh had turned the color of ash. Bits of skin were starting to flake away where the intricate red designs of my crimson tattoos had been, leaving behind trails of angry char. Yeah, that was probably bad.

“I’m not nice. I’m completely self-serving. I don’t want you to die before we get Baal.” He held a hand out to me. “I think you can understand that.”

“Yeah, I can get behind something like that.” It was true. I could. Even though I didn’t want to admit it, he had a point. I wasn’t going to take down a demon in my sorry state. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to let him drive me back to the park. It might even save time, assuming he actually drove me there.

I took his hand and let him help me up. He grunted, and I’m not sure I would have made it to my feet if Ricky hadn’t helped. I stood there for a long while, trying to get my bearings before allowing the both of them to help me shuffle back toward the overpass.

“So, what’s for dinner?” Ricky asked, glancing around the nearly empty section of city. We were on an empty street surrounded by vacant lots, which was probably why no police had shown up, but I wondered if that would last once it got lighter out. Surely, cars would pour onto this road, see the wreckage, and do something about it. Even if they didn’t, I didn’t want to be around to find out.

“Whatever is open at three AM and is also fast,” Danton said with a shrug. “I’ll give you one guess since that pretty much leaves only Taco Bell.”

“I’m not a huge fan of fast food Mexican.” Ricky stuck out her tongue. “What about Jack in the Box? Don’t they have those boxes full of yummy you can’t get during normal hours?”

“We’ll stop wherever is open and on the way,” Danton said as we neared the overpass. “Okay?”

A gold hooptie with a pair of black fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror filled my vision. It seemed like the exact sort of car I’d see in a really bad porno, and I half-wondered if the interior would be wet and sticky. I sort of doubted it given Danton was supposed to be some kind of holy warrior for the angels, but then again, it was a gold hooptie with fuzzy fucking dice.

Ricky glanced from the car to me and back again, visibly steeling herself as she did so. I wasn’t sure if we were on the same page, but I thought we might be, and with her being the lone girl in this scenario, well, I’d be uncomfortable too.

“So, nice car,” she said, strain barely evident in her voice. “You get it from Dirk Diggler?”

“This car has the life of a dreamer, the days of a business and the nights in between,” Danton replied, fishing out a key with a blue rabbit’s foot attached to it. He clicked the button. The car responded by unlocking itself, which was cool since I didn’t think cars this crappy could do that.

Ricky leaned her head close to my ear and spoke so each word was a hot pulse of breath on my skin. “If there’s a video camera or roller skates inside that car, you’re on your own.”

There had been neither a video camera nor a pair of roller skates inside the car. At least not that I could see. Ricky must have been satisfied too because even though the car smelled so strongly of bubblegum I could barely breathe, she helped me sprawl across the backseat before climbing into the passenger seat.

I tried to make myself comfortable in the large backseat while Ricky and Danton sat in front making awkward small talk, but despite the car’s semi-roomy interior, I found myself turning homicidal. I wasn’t sure how loud the two of them were being, but every inane word they said pulsated across my brain. It made me want to shoot them both and leave them in an unmarked grave somewhere. I guess it was a good thing I was out of guns and ammo. Still, if it kept up, I was going to rectify that situation sooner, rather than later.

“Can you two shut up,” I croaked, and the amount of anger in my voice was surprising.

“Eat this. It’s not Snickers, but maybe it will help with your whole ‘I’m a giant jerk when I’m hungry and tired’ thing,” Danton said, tossing a soiled box of strawberry pop tarts over the seat. “Then again, maybe not. You were kind of a jerk beforehand.”

I had half a mind to yell at him for calling me a jerk, but thought better of it because it’d just antagonize him further. That was the absolute last thing I needed.

The box landed on the ground next to me, and I stared at it for a long moment before grabbing it and pulling out one of the remaining three pastries. I tore open its foil wrapper and before I could stop myself, shoved the whole thing in my mouth. I chewed slowly, trying to work up enough spit so I wouldn’t choke. It didn’t work. I swallowed it down, but it hurt everything inside me.

“Water,” I croaked, but even as I said the word, Ricky was already turned around and holding a half-full water bottle out to me. I wasn’t sure what she’d gotten it from, but I was really hoping she’d been the one to drink out of it. Somehow, I doubted it.

“I know, Mac. You have a girly tummy that requires copious amounts of fluid to eat a single pop tart.” She shook the bottle at me and grinned in a way that made her look exceedingly devilish.